Suddenly can't move legs

[Whitfloor]

My friend had a general anaesthetic two days ago (her first) to correct a minor problem. She seemed fine. She's in her late thirties.

Two hours ago she felt very sick and became unable to stand. She became unresponsive. No raised temperature. An ambulance was called.

Waiting on a CT scan. She can't move her legs.

She was frightened about the possibility of having a reaction to the anaesthetic. Could this be a delayed reaction?

Reduced sensation in all four limbs. SATS fine throughout. Now perfectly clear mentally but passed out for a while in the ambulance.

What could be happening?

Best to ask them, no?!? 🤔

I agree that it sounds a lot like Guillan Barre too......however, i was diagnosed with MS, after an operation to have my wisdom teeth out resulted in similar symptoms to your friend. She'll need an MRI on her brain and spine.......a spinal stroke is another option.

Once again, in the context of anaesthesia, this relates to nitrous…which is extremely unlikely to have been used.

your friend MUST GET AN MRI NOW!!!..........she needs to be checked for any Demyelination on her brain or spinal cord. She shouldn't accept their excuses, this is very serious stuff......even something temporary can end up coming back with a vengence. This is from experience.

My daughter has FND, it presents as seizures with her.

It could be related to the ear surgery as the ear helps with balance.

Staff suggest it’s psychological when they don’t have a Fu**ing clue what they are doing. Tell them she is a man and they will take it more seriously 😡

I'm no expert but my first thoughts were blood clot or infection.

Sorry, but you should.
Listen to good advice when it's given. This is not the place for Doctor Google hysteria. Just leave it to the experts and not the untrained.

She has recovered within 24 hours spontaneously, so maybe it was psychological after all. But don’t let that stop you slagging of the medics. I expect you know better.

My first hemiplegic migraine mimicked stroke symptoms. Incredibly dramatic, loss of ability to stand, speak, co-ordination difficulties, balance issues, taken to A and E. Lasted several days. Had many since then but that first one was the worst.

Have no idea if this experience is similar, and the most important thing is to rule out other causes. I had an MRI a few months later. I take preventive medication now, which makes them much less frequent and milder although still sometimes lose ability to walk temporarily.

It could very well be psychological if she has worried about the general anathetic prior to her surgery. I suffer from FND Functional Neurological Disorder which is a psychological illness. I lost the use of my right arm during high times of stress and have never regained it. No medical explanation physically all scans are fine. But the situation I was going through at the time literally felt like I was.cutting.ky right arm off. It also began triggering seizures. I've come to accept it is psychological after diagnosis but only because after every medical team even the one diagnosing me couldn't do anything else I tried my hand at Lucid dreaming. Entering and.co trolling my dreams I can control my arm in my dream and as I wake I sometimes get a brief moment of feeling sometimes that lasts a little longer and the more I persist with lucid dreaming the more I feel my arm upon waking. If it had been physical that would be unlikely to work.

Spontaneous recovery doesn't mean it is necessarily psychological. my condition usually improves rapidly with rest. It doesnt make it any less real.

Just because we don't know what caused something, it doesn't mean it had a psychological cause. That's such a backwards way of thinking. It took 20 years of doctors telling me my illness was psychological before the very real physical cause was confirmed.

Hi OP, not read the full thread but just wanted to mention about checking B12 levels via blood test (sorry if this has already been mentioned) . Glad they are improving.

In amazed they discharged her before she had regained the use of her legs? Did they provide her with a wheel chair? Or did you have to carry her?

@Whitfloor Don’t think it’s appropriate for you to be publishing your friends medical details online .

I certainly can attest to this, alongside the misogyny and arrogance of male doctors who refused to agree my drug injury from am antipsychotic was an actual neurological involuntary movement disorder. I was given the cop-out diagnosis of Functional Neurological Disorder too, which is pretty much their way of saying 'we don't really know/won't admit to these drugs causing harm/want to get rid of you and give you a diagnosis so here is one".

And of course, people can have physical symptoms when they have suffered trauma etc, so I'm not saying this doesn't happen. But I'm not sure if in your friend's case that the cause is psychosomatic this time, especially as it happened after being administered medication.

There are a huge number of things it could be, and it is speculation as well to assume linked to the op. It could even be a slipped disc completely unrelated but causing nerve compression. Potentially a TIA which may, or may not, be linked. I know in this day and age we all look for answers online, but I think mumsnet is possibly a bad idea as you will get lots of advise from non medics, people, like me really! Who are medical but with that info rather a guess in the dark! I wish her better.

Someone once said don't stress before you know the outcome, otherwise you put yourself through the pain at least once more than you needed too, maybe twice.

Good advise 😘

Fit what anaesthetic reaction? Worrying these are chair diagnoses. The anaesthetic will be out of her system and 10y of anaesthetising I can't think of any reaction this can be??

I work with teenager with FND and it’s certainly possible for it present as temporary paralysis that can last a few hours. Your description of her falling asleep and twitching etc also sounds like a functional seizure.

Definitely best to look at physical causes first as it’s happened off the back of surgery but if it continues to happen it’s something to consider.

GP will likely want to do ECG, EEG and MRI.

Also your mention your friend has dealt with mental health issues before without a physical outcome but it could just be that the stress around her surgery has tipped the balance. FND is often the result of unconscious/unprocessed emotions that your friend may not even be aware of.

@Destiny123 this situation doesn't sound like Myasthenia before you accuse me of armchair diagnosing but you may want to swot up a bit on it because I am very weak for a good week after even dental anaesthetic and most Myasthenics find the same. I imagine anaesthetists often aren't even made aware of these longer to take effect after affects though.

(Although I am sure you are always on high alert for a potential myasthenic crisis during surgery - and of course because doctors kept insisting my symptoms were psychological I went over 20 years not realising how at risk I was from Myasthenia, so denial of reality is not just gaslighting it's potentially dangerous)

My legs stopped working for a few hours when I had peritonitis many years ago. Burst appendix.

Jesus Christ.

The NHS is even more unbelievably shit than I thought if this is true.

Your friend would not leave a Spanish hospital in that state, and they would definitely give an MRI.

And she would have a follow up out patient appointment.

And the people here claiming it's "anxiety" ......I don't know what to say.

My DP is an anesthetist and has been enjoying this thread, vicariously.

I mean we can all claim to be anything on Mumsnet.

But it's a shame if anesthetists don't have a curiosity about longer term impacts of anaesthetics on the neurological system, because they definitely impact most myasthenics I know for far longer than a couple of days.